🏷️ Vintage
The year the grapes for the wine were harvested.
Vintage is the year of the grape harvest from which a wine is made. It is shown on the label. The year matters because the weather differs from year to year, and temperature and water supply affect how the grapes ripen and what they contain. So wine from the same estate can differ from year to year.
How is it regulated? Under European Union rules, a year may be shown on the label only if at least 85% of the grapes used were harvested in that year. The rest may be from another harvest. A wine without a year is called non-vintage.
Today climate change also affects vintages: higher temperatures bring ripening earlier and change the composition of the grapes, especially their aroma compounds. The year on a bottle helps to understand what the season was like.
How it connects to Wine
🏷️ Vintage → kind of → 🏷️ Wine classifications → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Previous step
- 🌿 Climate change and wine, 🍷 Wine label
- Part of
- 🏷️ Wine classifications
- Similar and different
- 🏷️ Vin de garde, 🍷 Non-vintage Champagne, 🍷 Vintage Port
Frequently asked questions
What is a wine vintage?
The year of the grape harvest from which the wine is made; it is shown on the label.
How much of the wine must come from the stated year?
Under EU rules, at least 85%.
What is non-vintage wine?
Wine without a year on the label.
What to read next
- 🍷 Vintage Port — The finest Port from a single outstanding year, which matures for years in the bottle.
- 🍷 Wine label — The sticker on a bottle: who made it, where from, the year and strength.
- 🏷️ Vin de garde — Wine that gets better after many years in the bottle.
- 🌿 Climate change and wine — Warming moves the harvest earlier and pushes vineyards north and up into the mountains.
- 🍷 Non-vintage Champagne — Champagne blended from wines of different years so it tastes the same every year.
Similar
🏷️ Old vines · 🏷️ Vintners Quality Alliance · 🏷️ Wine of Origin · 🏷️ Geographical indication (Australia) · 🏷️ Klosterneuburger Mostwaage · 🏷️ Cava (Greece)
⚠️ Wine contains alcohol: adults only, drink in moderation. Wine usually contains sulphites; egg white or milk proteins are sometimes used for fining — important for allergies and for vegans.
Sources
- EU Delegated Regulation 2019/33, Article 49 (vintage year: at least 85% of grapes harvested in that year)
- van Leeuwen C., Darriet P. The impact of climate change on viticulture and wine quality. J Wine Econ 2016;11(1):150–167